Contributing to Tampa and the Nation
Gopher Resource has been a leading provider of recycling services to the battery industry for 75 years. Since acquiring the facility in 2006, our Tampa employees have kept an estimated 75+ million batteries from being exposed to our environment and communities. We are committed to protecting our communities by keeping the lead battery life cycle in motion and delivering clean, reliable, high quality solutions.
We are proud of the Gopher Resource workforce and the commitment of our plant and our people to our core value of protecting our employees and the Tampa community. We are singularly focused on ensuring our lead battery recycling process is continually managed in a safe, clean and environmentally responsible way and keeping as many batteries as possible out of landfills.
Recycling facilities like Tampa are essential to keeping the over 130 million spent lead batteries out of landfills in the U.S. every year. More than 90% of lead batteries’ three main components are infinitely recyclable. We’ve also:
- Added nearly 250 well-paying local jobs (from 80 to over 310 employees)
- Added $40 million in local spending (annual, 2019)
- Increased recycling to an estimated 13 million lead batteries annually at the Tampa facility
Committed to Operating Safely
Our overriding core value is to protect people and communities. We voluntarily set our thresholds to perform significantly better than health, safety and environmental requirements. At our Tampa facility:
25% of our operating budget
goes to health, safety and environmental stewardship.
12% of workforce
represents jobs specifically focused on health, safety and environmental stewardship
$140 million invested
in environmental and safety improvements since 2006
8,000 hours
of training annually
A Letter to Our Community
As you may know, Gopher Resource has been in the news recently. We invite you to read this letter from our President and CEO, Brian Leen, where he addresses the subject of those articles and outlines how our company “can and will do even better” to accelerate employee safety measures.
Lead Batteries Power Our Lives
Lead batteries are an essential, irreplaceable link to connect, power and protect our daily lives and are key to a cleaner, greener future – providing 70% of the world’s rechargeable power. Lead batteries enable numerous modern conveniences – cars, electronic banking, healthcare and mobile connectivity.
That’s why lead – a metal found naturally in the Earth’s crust – is so critical. We all need, use and benefit from lead batteries daily.
Review the Facts
Tampa Facility
Our facility in Tampa provides advanced battery recycling services and hundreds of green jobs for citizens throughout the Tampa region.
Our Health & Safety Program
We voluntarily set our thresholds to perform significantly better than health, safety and environmental requirements.
